November’s terror attacks in Paris caused a “significant hiatus” in bookings for the final quarter of 2015, the regional airline’s CEO has said.
Saad Hammad admitted the “tragic” events led to a downturn, not just to France, but on domestic and European travel.
According to its latest trading update for the three months to December 31, passenger revenue per seat dropped 6.1 per cent compared to the same period in 2014. The load factor also fell 5.4 per cent to 68.9 per cent.
The announcement comes just after Easyjet admitted the Paris attacks and the bombing of an Egypt plane in November hit revenues for the final quarter of 2015.
Flybe said despite the Paris attacks an increased focus on business travel helped passenger numbers rise 2.1 per cent and revenue grow 3.6 per cent to £128.9 million.
The results also showed strong forward bookings, which the airline said reflects business travellers’ “late booking profile”.
Flybe CEO Saad Hammad said: “The tragic events in Paris overshadowed this last quarter and caused a significant hiatus in airline bookings, not just to France, but also on UK domestic and near-continent travel.
“As we expected, the combination of higher capacity in the market and lower spot fuel prices have led to lower yields sector-wide, even as the benefits start to come through from the unwinding of fuel price hedging. In this uncertain environment, we decided to protect yields rather than to chase unprofitable marginal revenue.”
Flybe picked up the award for Best Short Haul airline at last week’s 2016 Business Travel Awards.
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